As a preliminary to my discussion of the latest pro-nuclear sewage spill, "Pandora's Promise", we have to get down to the basics -- in part because pro-nukers prefer to make things hyper-biased and convoluted with complexity, factual omission and total bovine scat.

Remember, not all Bequerels are created equal. We learn in middle school you can't compare apples to oranges, and yet pro-nuclear "scientists" continue to compare bananas to cesium, plutonium and uranium. The decay rate of radioactive potassium in bananas is absolutely harmless and will not cause death by a thousand cuts like the hyper-excited elements in industrial nuclear experimentation. You can't compare bananas to a triple meltout, including one MOX fueled reactor among them!

This twisted view led to a particularly laughable illustration in the recently screened film Pandora's Promise where, with CNN cartoon technology, the waste total of nuclear experimentation is shown to be so small that it could all be stored in one football stadium. This is a great way to relate this information, on one level, as most people can comprehend the size of a football stadium, but otherwise it is complete rubbish, based on the omission of critical information. And this was the common theme throughout.

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For one, the United States has accumulated over 70,000 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel, and continues to accumulate 2,200 tons per year. Yet it has no place to permanently store the permanently toxic material. This is a massive environmental issue, today and for future generations, and should be presented that way.

Two, if pro-nukers tried to store it all in one place it would ignite and kill all life as we know it on the planet. Nuclear waste can never be contained to a space the size of a football stadium. Drawing this comparison is deceptive as it leads the public to believe that the waste generated by the nuclear industry can be isolated to one place.

Three, this comparison does not show the destruction caused by its extraction, refinement, water usage and normal releases when used as fuel.

Ethan Indigo Smith is the son of a farmer and nurse who was later adopted by artists. Ethan was raised in Maine, Manhattan, and Mendocino, California. Ethan is a proud dropout. Ethan has traveled the world and has been employed briefly as (more...)